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Day three of an Adventure in the Daddy Zone with my father

by Mark Eades

We got up early and decided to forego breakfast so we could start off up I-15 to Pleasant Grove, Utah.

My Dad looking out at the scenery in the Virgin River Gorge.

For a lot of the drive in Nevada and Utah, and the little corner of Arizona, it was very windy, as we were driving into the wind and it buffeted us around a bit on the road.

A semi-truck and trailer overturned due to high winds on the median of I-15 north of Las Vegas.

But we did not have it as bad as one truck driver on I-15 in Nevada as somehow his (or her) semi ended up (trailer and all) upside down on the median.

The winds were high enough to overturn this tractor-trailer rig and blow it into the median on I-15 north of Las Vegas.

It was about a 15-minute delay to get past the wreck where the crews were working to pull it up and out of there.

Then it was onto to St. George, Utah – through the Virgin River Gorge.

The beautiful scenery of the upper end of the Virgin River Gorge.

It’s a beautiful drive through the gorge, sadly there is no place to stop and take photos until you are almost out of the gorge.

We ended up in St. George and stopped off at the Denny’s in the south part of town for breakfast right around 10:55 in the morning, then realized it was really 11:55 in the morning as we had entered a new time zone.

The next stop was a well-time visit to one of Utah’s very nice Rest Areas.

A rest area on I-15 in Utah that was very clean. California should take lessons on road maintenance and rest areas from Utah.

The bathrooms in this facility were as clean as those in Eddie World. But we also discovered that it was a lot colder here than in Vegas or California. And the wind was still blowing.

My silver Nissan Versa Note parked at the rest stop along I-15 in Utah. It was very pretty in this area.

Oh, and while we were at this stop, I made Dad finally find his sunglasses and put them in the glove compartment and be able to conveniently wear them.

Then it was back on the road. We gassed up in Cedar City, then drove on.

Then it was onward and we didn’t stop again until we got to Pleasant Grove. I had to pull off the interstate to look up the location of our hotel for two days, a Holiday Dad Inn Express.

The mountains as seen from out hotel room in Pleasant Grove, Utah.

It’s a nice room with a nice view.

Then we made an amazing discovery! There is a restaurant in Pleasant Grove called (drum roll please!) Jim’s Family Restaurant.

Jim’s Family Restaurant in Pleasant Grove, Utah. I didn’t know my Dad had a restaurant named after him.

Well of course we had to eat dinner there.

My Dad at his namesake restaurant in Pleasant Grove, Utah.

The owner also is Greek and besides the normal (large) family types of foods and sandwiches, he has some Greek food too. I had a marinated Pork dinner. Delicious. Dad ordered a Grilled Pastrami Burger with cheese, but after eating my soup decided to save the sandwich until tomorrow.

It’s a warm and friendly atmosphere inside Jim’s Family Restaurant. Something my Dad really liked – so did I.

Then it was up to the room for the night when Dad made a quirky discovery: The knob on the bathtub faucet could not be pulled up easily to divert the water up into the shower head. So we went down and got the hotel manager and we got it fixed. Thank goodness.

So now it’s time for bed as tomorrow we will go to Evermore Park where my good friend, former Disney Imagineer Josh Shipley, was the creative director for this brand-new themed entertainment experience.

Here’s a link to Day Two of our adventure.

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agingDaddy Zonefatherhood

Day two of an Adventure in the Daddy Zone with my father

by Mark Eades

Well, it’s our second day in Las Vegas and after a hearty breakfast (he had a ham an cheese omelet, I had French Toast) in Bugsy’s (the restaurant inside the El Cortez Hotel and Casino); we decided to go over to Hoover Dam to see the bridge they built 880 feet above the Colorado River to the south of the dam.

No, that’s not Dad with me in this photo.

Of course, this was after we check our multi-game Keno tickets to see what money we might have one. We both got some money, but not enough to cover what we had spent on the multi-game tickets.

A view out the window of the El Cortez towards the Las Vegas Strip.

Oh well, we bought new tickets, then headed out.

A view of Lake Mead as we headed towards Hoover Dam.

We actually drove out Fremont Street, which turns into Boulder Highway for most of the way, just to look at all the run down and closed up motels along the way.

The Hoover Dam Lodge and Casino, a nice place to make a pit stop on the way to Hoover Dam. Nice clean bathrooms!

Then, after getting on the freeway, Dad announced he needed to make a “pit stop.” Fortunately, the Hoover Dam Lodge and Casino was just at the next off-ramp – only a mile. So we got off the freeway and went inside the place so Dad could do his “duty.” By the way, it’s a very nice place with lots of interesting history on the construction of Hoover Dam.

My Dad, Jim Eades, looks down upon Hoover Dam from the bridge.

Okay, that was done and on to the overlook for the Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, which is the actual highway now between Nevada and Arizona.

At the top of the switchbacks trail leading to the overlook of the dam and the bridge.

We climbed a multitude of switchbacks on the walk up to the overlook, which were built very ADA compliant, by the way, with a grade of a 1-foot rise for every 12-feet. We both walked all the switchbacks up and down, rather than take the stairs

It’s a long drop from that bridge to the Colorado River below. But a great view of Hoover Dam. You can see the water level of Lake Mead is fairly low.

Once at the top, we walked out on the bridge on the pedestrian walkway to take in the view of Hoover Dam. We were 880 feet above the surface of the Colorado River below, south of the dam. A scary height indeed. The wind was blowing pretty hard too, so Dad had to carry his “Pop Pop” baseball hat so it would not blow away into the canyon below.

The bridge over the Colorado River near Hoover Dam.

You can still drive, very slowly, across Hoover Dam. But once across, you will have to turn around and drive back across, as it is no longer a throughway for traffic.

Cars still drive very slowly across Hoover Dam.

Then we drove through Boulder City on the way back to Vegas. That afternoon, after myself doing a little bit of my freelance work,  we both went out to “check on our investment” in Las Vegas. (You know, gamble.)

These folks from Michigan were all having Bloody Marys at the Golden Nugget’s Bar 46. (They make an excellent Manhattan there, by the way.)

But before I hit the poker room at the Golden Nugget, I had a Manhattan at its Bar 46, where I met up with a group from Michigan who had flown into town and made that bar their first stop to have their version of Bloody Marys. (Seven of them in all!) They proclaimed them the best they’d ever had.

An interesting character on Fremont Street.

I won some of the money I had lost the night before playing poker by, playing poker.

While walking back to the El Cortez from the Golden Nugget, I did run into a few interesting characters along the way.

I think this guy behind me lost all his money at the Craps tables.

Sadly, neither mine, nor my Dad’s numbers all came in that night at Keno.

Then it was on to dinner at Bugsy’s. We both had Rib-Eye steaks. But in Dad’s case he did have a hard time eating it, so I gladly finished it for him. We also washed it down with three (apiece) glasses of red wine – the wine was free due to the donations we both made in the Keno lounge.

A very fast asleep Pop Pop.

So now that we’ve both had all that wine, we’re both very sleepy. He’s all ready asleep and I’m having a hard time keeping my eyes open. So, it’s on to bed, then on to Pleasant Grove, Utah tomorrow.

In case you missed it, here’s a link to the Day One story.

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agingDaddy Zonefatherhood

Day one of An Adventure in the Daddy Zone with my father

by Mark Eades

Day one of the 23-day road trip with my 85-year-old father started out innocently enough, we were just going to go to Vegas for a couple nights. After all, he had a few free nights at his favorite hotel: The El Cortez downtown.

But once we hit the road, we encountered our first little problem as we were climbing up to Cajon Pass on I-15, he could not find his sunglasses. He thought he had put them in one bag, the easily accessible one, but no. Oh well, he’d have to live without them if he had left them at home.

So, it was on to Victorville for our first stop, the traditional breakfast at Denny’s on Palmdale Road. We both had the same breakfast off the senior citizen menu, the scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese, bacon and pancakes. Then it was time to pay for the meal, which was on him.

Well. we encountered our second snafu. He attempted to use one of his credit cards to pay for the meal, and tip, but the machine rejected it. So he ended up using another card. But why it wasn’t being accepted was a puzzler. More on that in a bit.

Mark Eades stands near the giant ice cream sundae at Eddie World.

Fed and paid for, we went along on I-15 to our next stop, the newest tourist trap along the road to Vegas: Eddie World.

The wall of Los Angeles Lakers memorabilia on a wall inside Eddie World.

The owner is a big Lakers fan, and has a giant wall that shows his love of the Lakers.

Even the toilet handles at Eddie World are clean as with each opening of the handle, a new plastic cover slips over the handle – see Ma? No germs.

One of the selling points of Eddie World is that it has the cleanest bathrooms anywhere along that route, and I have to agree. Even the handles in the toilet stalls are set up with plastic that gets replaced every time someone uses them.

For a tourist trap they have some good food, even build your own pizza that is baked in a wood-fired oven.

They also sell a large variety of their own produced candies, wood-fired pizzas, fresh-ground hamburgers, and there’s even a section with multiple flavors of ice cream. In addition, there’s a jerky stand with a whole lot of varieties of jerky, and a Peet’s coffee counter.

Some of the stuff sold in Eddie World.

After spending some time inside, Dad decided to call the people about his refused credit card. Turned out they had sent him a new one, and he had neglected to validate it. So not only was the card he was carrying invalid, they invalidated the one probably sitting at home. But no worries, he had other cards and would be able to pay his share of the trip.

So now, after some photo ops, it was on to Vegas. We got there, and after checking in at the hotel, he immediately went down to the Keno Lounge and bought his favorite numbers for 100 games, then lost at a video poker machine.

I went over to the Golden Nugget to the real poker room and played for a few hours, but never really got any good cards and after about three hours, had spent my limit for the day.

Back to the hotel, we rested for a bit in the hotel room while I did some editing on a freelance article due in a couple days, then we went out to check out the crazy sights in downtown Las Vegas and have a light supper.

One of the crazy characters to be found on the Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas.

Trust me, there are plenty of crazy sights in the downtown area called the Fremont Street Experience including many characters willing to pose for photo ops, for a donation of course.

If you’re heavy enough, and finish your meal, it’s free.

We thought about eating at the Heart Attack Grill, but instead dined on chili dogs at the American hot dog stand that sells Coney Island chili dogs at “The D.” Then went inside to take a look at the girls wearing go-go boots dancing behind the blackjack tables.

An art display sponsored by LYFT in downtown Las Vegas.

Then we went outside to visit Manneken Pis, a copy of a famous statue in Brussels. And, of course, I took a photo of Dad standing by the statue.

We wandered around a bit more, taking in all the lights, sound and craziness, then we two older men decided it was time to shower and bed down for the night.

All in all, a nice start to what should be a memorable trip.

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Adventures in the Daddy Zone with the baby at Disneyland

by Mark Eades

Editor’s note: This was originally written and to be published in the June 2018 edition of Parenting OC Magazine. But do to space limitations it was cut. So it is posted here by the author.

Well here I was, sitting on a bench under the shade of a tree in the Central Plaza at Disneyland. With me was our daughter, then about eight months old. Where was Mom? She was off in the long line for Pirates of the Caribbean with our four-year-old son.

He decided Mom deserved a trip to Disneyland for her birthday. Meanwhile I, the Dad, got to come too as it was Father’s Day, but it really meant I would watch baby sister while they went on a bunch of Disneyland attractions, especially those the baby could not ride.

My wife really knows how to get ready for trips to places like Disneyland. She was determined to not bring a stroller. So, we had a front pack for our daughter, and a backpack with all the baby stuff in it: Formula, bottles, baby food, disposable diapers, a change of clothes, extra blankets, two containers of baby wipes, and large, sealable, baggies to put, well, soiled things in.

The last would come in handy, as I would find out.

Thankfully, before they ran off to see the pirates, my wife took our daughter into the ladies’ bathroom and changed our daughter’s wet diaper. I figured that would hold her for a while. But my wife also assured me there were changing tables in the men’s bathrooms too.

I’m a little old-school. If my daughter did something while my wife was gone, I really didn’t want to have to change my daughter’s diaper in a men’s room. But I also did not want to do it out in the open on a Disneyland park bench either. My wife pointed across the plaza.

“There’s a Baby Care Center over there, I’m sure they can help you out,” she said as the two of them took off to get in the 90-minute line for Pirates of the Caribbean.

Now the nice thing about being a Dad with a baby, is that all the people like to stop by and make fun faces at the baby. And I will admit some of them were some nice-looking women. But I digress.

There we were, baby daughter and me sitting across from Sleeping Beauty Castle. She seemed to be very happy. When the horses pulling the street cars stopped nearby, we would walk over to them; she really liked them. Mary Poppins and Bert strolled by and said “Hello.” She really liked that.

We watched some ducks waddle by for a handout, I had a box of popcorn and “accidentally” spilled some on the ground for them. It went fine with my cup of soda, which did have a baby spillage prevention device on it, better known as a lid.

Things were going along fine for about an hour when she got fussy. Usually a sign that she wanted to either eat or drink something, so I carefully set my popcorn and drink down on the bench and got a ready to go bottle of formula of a side pocket of the backpack, and a baby blanket from another pocket. The bottle satisfied her for a while.

Then she spit the bottle out, obviously full. I set the bottle down next to the popcorn and soda, put the blanket on my shoulder, put her up there, gave her a few pats on the back and she burped. I was a pro at this. Then I laid her down on the blanket, with an arm in place to keep her from rolling off.

What a lovely day, she was kicking and smiling and goo-gooing. As I watched people taking pictures in front of the castle. I wasn’t really paying attention when she stopped making noise. I looked down at her and saw she was making a face of great concentration.

Oh oh. Did I just hear some music of impending doom? No, it was a different kind of noise – equal to the level of concentration on her face. It was a doom of a different kind – she was going poo-poo. Now normally, at home, this would not be that big a deal. But she was doing it right here on a park bench in the middle of Disneyland.

Worse yet, it was massive as it started to ooze out the sides of the diaper like the Blob and onto the blanket. And the smell? It was worse than anything the horses could do. I panicked and quickly grabbed the bottle of formula and stuffed it into the backpack – knocking over the popcorn in the process, to the great joy of the ducks in the area.

I needed to get to the Baby Care Center – and fast, as the daytime parade was approaching and I needed to get across Main Street U.S.A. before it arrived at the crossing. I wrapped her into the blanket, hiding the evidence of her dastardly deed, and quickly headed across the plaza, leaving my soda behind. Oh well, Disneyland’s Custodial staff, I was sure, would make quick work of that.

I did get stuck at the crossing while the first few floats passed, I had visions of her poo-poo oozing out like the Blob and devouring all nearby. Finally, they let us cross. I strived not to bump into anyone while carrying a baby with a diaper full of bad news. Suffice it to say, I made it to the Baby Care Center.

The Disneyland Baby Care Center is located just off the Central Plaza (also known as “The Hub”) at Disneyland. Inside the entry lobby there is a photo of Walt Disney when he was a baby on the wall. Photo by Mark Eades.

When I entered, it was like I’d gone to heaven for anyone needing to deal with feeding, nursing or having to change extremely dirty poo-pooed diapers like me. I thought I even heard angels singing.

The two Cast Members inside took one look at me and seemed to immediately understand what was going on. They directed me to one of the changing stations, which also had a nice paper liner on it to keep it clean from messes like my daughter’s.

One even asked if I needed any other assistance. I said no, but that they might want to hold their noses.

“We’re used to that, but this facility has excellent air circulation to take care of any unwanted odors,” the Cast Member said as she smiled.

I laid my daughter down, she seemed to relish squirming around in her mess. This was going to be a multiple baby wipe extravaganza to clean this mess up. I set the backpack emptied it, then proceeded to undo the diaper and was immediately assaulted by a pile of goo that would have been better handled by a large bulldozer.

I opened up two of the large zip top baggies; one for the diaper and wet baby wipes, the other for everything else. It took about 15 minutes to clean up the mess, with my daughter constantly moving the whole time. Finally, I was done. The dirty diaper and wet wipes filled one baggie, the dirty clothes and now dirty blanket filled the other. I sealed them both up and looked around for a waste basket for the one. The ladies pointed.

“Looks like you’ve done this before,” one of them said as they changed the paper liner.

“You might need to feed her soon,” the other Cast Member said.

I nodded and got out a jar of food, then realized there was no spoon in the backpack. One of them offered me a disposable plastic spoon, and suggested I take a few more with me.

Thank goodness for the Cast Members at the Baby Care Center. After feeding my daughter, I packed everything, not as neatly as my wife had done, and went outside. The parade had passed, and I could see my wife and son strolling this way, thank goodness, as I suddenly realized I needed to use the restroom.

The Disneyland Baby Care Center is located just off the Central Plaza (also known as “The Hub”) at Disneyland. Inside, parents or guardians can find a variety of things to support those with babies. In addition, the center serves as the location for lost children or lost parents. Photo by Mark Eades.

–Some additional tips from Linda Marquez, a Disneyland Park Specialist of the Disney Parks Moms Panel: “Traveling with infants is making sure they are comfortable while at the parks. Bring along kid-approved sunscreen, a hat to provide shade from the sun, and a small, portable fan to keep cool. You will definitely want to bring your stroller from home or rent one at the parks. A stroller is not only the safest and most efficient way to get your little one around the parks, but it’s also an excellent place to store your belongings and a comfy spot for your little one to take a snooze. If you use a baby carrier or wrap, you can wear your baby on the majority of attractions that do not have height requirements.”

Personally, my wife and I always found it easier to go without a stroller. It was easier to move throughout the parks, and we’re good with backpacks. The Baby Care Center in each of the Disneyland Resort’s two parks have a microwave, handy for warming formula. In addition, it is the place that any lost children or lost parents can be found as well.

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